Health and Safety

How to Facilitate Risky Play

Risky play is when children engage in risk-taking activities. This benefits the child because it helps them build essential skills for their development; for example, their confidence, self-regulation, and independence. But how can we facilitate risky play safely in our programs?

Measles Outbreak: Is your CNC program ready?

With the recent measles outbreak, it’s a good opportunity to review policies and procedures to ensure that you are meeting requirements and following public health expectations. Do you continue to provide information to parents about immunization? Do you understand public health expectations for documenting children’s immunization and developing an exclusion plan? Canada Public Health has weekly monitoring reports on measles and a parent's guide to immunization. HealthLinkBC also has multilingual information about vaccination that you can share with parents. Contact your local public health office for more information.

A call for action: Increasing the mental health outcomes of our educators

Being an early childhood educator comes with a responsibility to inspire, cherish, provoke and entice deep learning processes in the children we care for and educate. With so much responsibility and emphasis on the importance of quality in early childhood programming, it is no wonder that educator mental health topics are coming up more often. It's time to put some thought into how you're going to support your positive mental health and wellbeing this year!

Updated guidelines for introduction of common allergenic foods to infants

According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, for high-risk infants (and based on developmental readiness) it's best to introduce common allergenic solids at around 6 months of age, but not before an infant is 4 months of age.

New Canada Food Guide

The iconic Canada Food Guide has provided Canadians with a snapshot of healthy eating recommendations for over 75 years, and Health Canada has just released the first updated edition in over a decade! The new Canada Food Guide suggests a focus on drinking water, plant-based diets, and home-cooking.

What are ACES and how do they relate to toxic stress?

The term “ACEs” is an acronym for Adverse Childhood Experiences. ACEs research shows the correlation between early adversity and poor outcomes later in life. Toxic stress explains how ACEs can trigger biological reactions that lead to those outcomes. The Harvard Centre on the Developing Child has developed a simple infographic that explains...

Do you have plants in your program?

About Kids Health has put together an overview of plant safety and and a helpful list of poisonous plants to avoid.

Refrigerate Right – Tips for Storing Food Safely

Did you know that it’s important to cover and place the food in a way that helps to keep it from getting cross-contaminated with drippings or juices from other foods when you store food in a refrigerator? Here's how...

Five Wellness Lessons From A Toddler

In the wake of World Mental Health day, the amount of stress in our modern day lives is obvious. And while stress itself is not considered a mental health problem, it often leads to depression and anxiety, which are the most common mental health issues. Yet there’s a natural source of inspiration – and even stress relief – in our lives that we may just have overlooked. The average toddler expresses qualities we have long since abandoned due to overwhelming ‘busy’-ness. Here’s five things that come naturally to toddlers that we can use to improve our general well-being!  

Kids’ Health Information for Parents in Different Languages!

To reach optimal physical health and mental well-being, children need to: get enough sleep; make healthy food and drink choices; be more active; and limit the time they spend in front of screens. Kids' Health pamphlets are available in 22 languages to help parents and caregivers.